During his ongoing visit to Vietnam from November 2-4, EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan, spoke to local press on EVFTA, as the agreement is expected to be officially reached by both sides next year and to come into effect by 2018.
Saying that Vietnam was a fast-growing and dynamic economy with huge potential to continue growing in the coming years, Hogan emphasised that the EU had been part of this success and that its active integration into the global economy with the support of the EU had yielded EVFTA after three years of negotiations aimed at bringing sustainable prosperity to both sides.
The agreement was a good outcome as it was well balanced for both sides, he said, adding that the two economies complemented each other, meaning that there were great opportunities for the agricultural sector of each side when it comes to market access. The FTA would also lead to increased EU investment in Vietnam, which is expected to support the process of improving productivity and value added in the country.
He also expressed his belief that consumers in Vietnam would be positively impressed with the quality and diversity of European products. The EU maintains the highest quality standards in the world for food, including meat and dairy products and fruits and vegetables, and a world-class system for indicating the geographical origins of products.
Vietnam was also an important market for the EU in Asia, and, in turn, not only were the Vietnamese people increasingly interested in the European agro-food products, but a growing number of European consumers were also keen to discover Vietnam’s exotic assets in the agro-food sector, the EU official said.
Vietnam has also recorded impressive growth for its products in the EU market in recent years, as demonstrated by the nearly EUR20 billion trade surplus in 2015, much of which came from the agro-food sector. Such potential would be fully optimised with the enforcement of the bilateral FTA and zero tax rates by early 2018.
As the world leader in exports of some products like coffee, cashew nuts and pepper, Vietnam had enormous potential for agro-product exports, and the removal of market access barriers was key to facilitating exports of Vietnamese products to the EU and vice versa, Hogan affirmed.
Another important issue was food safety, as it was key for consumer demand to be mutually advantageous. The EU had experience in meeting the stringent requirements of the world market regarding product quality and food safety and was willing to share this with Vietnam, he said.
Hogan also pointed out a field with potential for cooperation—cooperative model development. Saying that the EU had formed large-scale cooperatives to bring farmers together to help each other, he said the bloc would work with Vietnam to share its practices in the field, as the two had a common goal of rural development.
Hogan is leading an EU business delegation in the fields of agricultural products and foodstuffs to seek for business opportunities in Vietnam, and vice versa. Vietnamese consumers will soon have more opportunities to experience the EU’s food products, which are of outstanding quality and meet high standards of safety.
During his stay in Vietnam, Hogan will meet senior Vietnamese officials, including Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. He attended a seminar on the EVFTA in Hanoi on November 3 and will be present at a business forum in Ho Chi Minh City the next day.
